Why healthy evening snacking is important

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A wholesome and nutritious evening snack packed with antioxidants and phytonutrients can maximise your health and well-being to a great extent. Evening snacking is an effective way to fit extra nutrients into your diet and can prevent you from overeating during dinner time. But, many people can go wrong with evening snacking, therefore it is important to choose healthy snacking options. Healthy snacking helps improve overall health, fights weight gain, boosts brain health, regulates mood, curbs cravings and gives you the energy you need to keep going until the end of the day.

Evening snacking is a big yes! It helps in regulating blood sugar levels and can also fight off the fatigue many of us face as the day ends. Avoiding extreme hunger during evening time increases the likelihood of picking up unhealthy dinner options, and you may end up running to processed and junk foods.

Having frequent meals is important to maintain weight and overall health, and in fact, all meals of the day are equally essential and no one meal surpasses the other in terms of the benefits and essence it provides. We often put in good efforts to have a healthy, sumptuous breakfast, lunch or dinner, but, more often we tend to overlook look evening snacks. It is important to have fix timing for the evening meal. This can be 2-4 hours before dinner. If you exercise during evening time, the evening snack becomes even more important.

Here are a few reasons by Dietician Nmami Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Nmami Life why a habit of healthy evening snacking is essential:

• It helps to avoid overeating at dinner.
• It reduces the gap between lunch and dinner.
• It aids in sustaining energy until dinner time.
• It controls acidity, bloating and other digestive problems.
• It keeps you energetic and refreshed for the second half of the day.
• It helps control the portion size in lunch and dinner.
• It keeps blood sugar levels maintained.
• It avoids the mental restlessness which you may get at work due to hunger pangs
• It provides required nutrients if you are following any evening workout/exercise session
• Ideally, it is recommended to have light dinner. Evening snack helps you keep your dinner light.
• It increases productivity, focus, and concentration.
• Evening snacks are crucial when it is part of your pre-workout meal as working on an empty stomach will not give you the desired results. But try avoiding snacking right before the meal.

Snacking out of boredom or for other emotional reasons isn't healthy and can eventually lead to weight gain and overeating. Keep a gap of 2-4 hours before the major meal. The best options you can go for managing your evening cravings in a healthy way are- boiled sprouts chaat, corn and broccoli salad, open egg sandwich, avocado toast with red bell pepper, yoghurt with mixed fruits, cottage cheese, roasted black grams, roasted foxnuts, and peanut flaxseeds salad, or cucumber sticks with hummus. You can also go for healthy and light beverages like watermelon kiwi smoothie, coconut water, banana lassi or mint buttermilk.

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